*Bianca*
I tried in vain to sleep that night but it just wasn’t going to happen. I might have dozed off once or twice from sheer exhaustion from all of the emotional stress but even then, it was for a couple of seconds and then I was checking on Amara in a panic.
I was so paranoid that Amara would never wake up and I kept seeing headlines talking about her death. About halfway through the night, she stirred a couple of tis and that cald slightly.
My nerves just doubled when the sun started to peek over the horizon and Amara still wasn’t awake. I gave up trying to sleep and sat up and settled into a chair by her bedside. I grasped her tiny hand and squeezed it firmly, praying hard that my best friend would open her eyes soon.
No sooner had I uttered that prayer under my breath, Amara started to shift. It took another long mont but then her eyelids fluttered open. She stared up at the ceiling in a daze before she realized that I was there. Her eyes rounded and she shot up suddenly.
“Bianca! I-” she winced suddenly and grabbed her head in her hands, cursing under her breath.
“Amara!” I said in alarm, gripping her shoulders. “What’s wrong? Do you need to go to the doctor?”
She waved off and I was relieved to feel the strength in her body as she did so. “I’m fine,” she said. Then she moaned. “I’ve had worse believe it or not. Damn hangovers.”
“I actually don’t believe that you’ve had worse,” I told her but I hugged her to , relief filling my body. “You were unconscious for hours and nothing I did would wake you. You really scared .”
She relaxed and hugged back but then pushed away to look in the eye, her whole countenance ashad. “B, I am so sorry for what I said,” she told . “I should have listened to you. I should have known that you had a good reason for not wanting to go to the party but I ignored you. And then I revealed your pregnancy to the whole school when I knew that you wanted to keep it on the downlow. Can you ever forgive ?”
“Of course, I forgive you,” I told her, gripping her hard. “I should apologize too. I wasn’t communicating very well. I know we’ve been cooped up because of . We’ll go do more soon, I promise.”
“No, don’t apologize,” she groaned, clutching her head again. “You’re pregnant. I should be more sensitive.”
I shushed her and gave her so crackers and yogurt as well as so water. “You need sothing in your stomach to fight the hangover,” I scolded her lightly.
Amara decided to sleep the hangover off and once she had so of the food and was sleeping peacefully, I left the room. I jumped when I turned and found Leo in the hallway.
He gave a sheepish grin. “I’m starving,” he said and then tilted his head. “Would you like to go out for breakfast since we didn’t get to grab dinner last night?”
I was still more than a bit upset but had to remind myself that none of this was Leo’s fault. I might not agree with how he handled things sotis but he was always doing his best and I had to rember that.
I smiled and took the hand he offered .
We chose a cozy cafe that was one of my favorites for brunch. Leo thanked the waitress politely after she took our orders.
I looked down at the table. Although I was no longer angry and Leo seed in a much better mood as well, there was still undoubtedly so tension between us. Leo was looking at but still seed regretful as he fiddled with the silverware in front of him.
After what felt like several minutes of silence and trying to avoid one another’s gazes, Leo finally t my eyes from across the table and spoke. “ I spoke with Al last night,” he announced.
My eyebrows rose. If he talked to Al, sothing major was likely going to go down.
“About what?” I asked, trying to stay calm.
“I inford him that I don’t find Darion fit to replace ,” he said, leaving out the word “don” since we were out in public. “Thankfully, Al agreed once he let explain. He’s going to look into Darion’s background as well as investigate the possibility of him paying off his professors.”
My heart stuttered. On the one hand, I was ecstatic to hear this. I knew Darion was guilty so it seed very likely that he would be sent back to Italy very soon. We would finally be rid of him.
It was a bittersweet mont because this also ant that Leo would have to continue in the role of Don for longer since they would have to start all over in terms of finding a replacent.
I wasn’t the most content because of this realization but I knew how important it was to Leo that he leave the position to soone responsible and trustworthy. These people were his family which made them family to as well.
“Thank you for talking to Al,” I told him, grateful that he actually took what I said seriously.
“You don’t need to thank ,” he said and he reached across the table so that he could take both of my hands in his. “We are a team, Bianca. No matter what happens now, you and our child will always be my number one priority. I always want you to co to for anything. I want to work things out with you.”
My heart lted at the way he talked about our little family. I squeezed his hands. “And I promise to stay by your side no matter what happens,” I said. “Through the entire process, I’ll support you and that goes for whatever happens in our future too. I want to face every challenge head-on together.”
Leo smiled but I wasn’t done yet.
“But you have to promise sothing,” I said.
“Anything,” Leo said at once, clearly wanting nothing more than to please .
I looked him seriously in the eye, wanting him to feel just how important this next part was to . “I’ll always stand by you,” I repeated. “That being said, if sothing dangerous happens or soone dangerous like what happened with Michael, we need to leave. Even if you don’t have a replacent yet, our family has to co first.”
Leo didn’t even hesitate when he answered. “Of course,” he said.
I felt myself relax, not having realized until now just how tense I had been. I nodded and smiled at him. “Thank you,” I said.
Leo grinned at in response and then leaned across the small table so that he could press his lips to mine.
We ended up having an incredible breakfast together. It was like once we talked about the elephant in the room, all the tension between us lted away. There were still things to worry about for sure but we were able to put them aside in the mont to just enjoy being together.
We left the restaurant hand-in-hand and I found myself more in love with Leo than ever.
“Don’t you have to go in today?” I asked suddenly once we entered the compound.
Leo shook his head. “I already told the guys I’m not coming in today,” he said. He shut the front door and then wrapped his arms around my waist. “It hasn’t gone unnoticed to that I have been neglecting you. I’m going to start trying harder, Bianca. I promise.”
I blushed. “You couldn’t help it,” I said. “I have to be understanding that you’re going to be busy a lot of the ti.”
“That’s no excuse,” he said quickly. “You are the most important thing to . I need to start acting like it.”
I wrapped my arms around him, burying my face in his chest. Butterflies swirled in my stomach, making my heart flutter.
“Starting right now,” he murmured in my ear. “What would you like to do today? We’ll do whatever you want.”
I bead at him before biting my lip shyly. “Maybe we could start planning the nursery,” I said. “We haven’t really had ti to start doing that yet. It’ll take a while so we should start soon.”
His eyebrows rose. He seed surprised by that answer. “Sure,” he said. “We can do that. Although, that is very different from the fancy dinner and movie I expected.”
“Let’s do that too,” I teased. “After we start planning the nursery.”
He chuckled. “Deal,” he said. He then started to tug upstairs. My eyebrows rose when he opened the door to a room I haven’t even been in, despite the fact that it was right next to ours. “I didn’t really know what I wanted this room to be.”
I stepped inside the room to find that it was mostly empty except for a small wooden desk and a couple of boxes on the floor. The walls were a soft light blue color.
“This will be perfect,” I said, growing excited.
We sat on the soft plush rug in the middle of the room, Leo’s arms around as I scrolled through a website that sold baby stuff.
“Wait, this is so cute,” I gushed, pausing on a mobile with dangling exotic animals.
Leo kissed my shoulder and then looked at the screen. “That mobile has a platypus on it,” he said in dismay.
I felt one side of my mouth turn up. “Is that a problem?” I asked.
“No,” he said but he said it like a question. “It’s just an interesting choice. What’s wrong with your average lion and bear?”
“Nothing,” I said but rolled my eyes since he couldn’t see them. “This mobile will look nice since it matches the walls.”
“We can repaint the walls,” Leo pointed out.
“No, I like this color,” I said, leaning back against his chest to look at the empty room. Soon it would be filled with things for our child. My eyes were probably sparkling as I imagined the pale gray crib, the changing table covered in moon patterns and the mobile with the platypus on it.
It was all going to be perfect.
Leo dropped his chin onto my shoulder, tilting his head so he could kiss my neck. “I can’t believe I’m going to be a father,” he said and there was definite longing in his voice.
“Believe it,” I said with a teasing giggle.
“And you made it possible,” he said huskily, putting a finger beneath my chin and tilting my face toward his so he could kiss deeply.
I gasped at the intensity of this kiss. There were so many layers behind it. I felt his excitent toward being a father, his relief at the peace we were currently finding after all the craziness of the past couple of days.
More than anything, I felt the undying love that he had for .
I leaned into the kiss, determined to return that love tenfold.
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